Chamber of Commerce & Interpol Combat Counterfeiting

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has created a partnership
with Interpol, the world’s largest police organization,
to combat counterfeiting and piracy across the globe,
good news to many executives facing these issues daily.

“The Chamber’s new collaboration with Interpol
will allow law enforcement and business to work together
to detect and investigate the criminal networks engaged
in counterfeiting and piracy globally,” said David
Hirschmann, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce. “Counterfeiting and piracy is big
business and law enforcement needs the intelligence tools
and resources to track down and bring these criminals
to justice.”

Commercial losses due to counterfeiting are estimated
around $500 billion, according to the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce. Twenty years ago, those losses stood at $5
billion.

The partnership will focus on two key areas – Interpol
will collect intelligence from businesses and its 186
member countries to analyze counterfeiting and piracy
trends; and Interpol will increase the number of staff
dedicated to fighting counterfeiting and piracy.

The primary goals of the partnership are to:

Create
a new crime unit dedicated to increasing international
law enforcement capabilities

Combat criminal activity
linked to the theft of intellectual property

Increase the number of investigations-especially
those involving organized crime-in Interpol’s
four regions

To improve the exchange of intelligence
on counterfeiting and piracy crimes.